Abstract:Silica gel was silanized with (3-chloropropyl) triethoxy silane and then grafted with polyethyleneimine (PEI) to obtain Si-PEI with silica as raw materials. To follow, a new adsorbent Si-AMP was synthesized through functionalization of Si-PEI with 2-chloromethyl pyrrole for copper removal from cobalt electrolyte. The surface of the adsorbent was characterized by means of FT-IR and elemental analysis. The resort indicates that the modification of silica surface is successfully performed. The adsorption characters of Si-AMP for Cu2 , Ni2 , Co2 are investigated through pH effect, adsorption dynamics and separation coefficient. The maximum adsorption capacities are 0.35 mmol/g, 0.25 mmol/g and 0.22 mmol/g for Cu2 , Ni2 and Co2 , respectively, when the pH value of solution is 3.8. From the static adsorption experiment, the separation coefficient of Cu/Co is 3 167, and the concentration of Cu2 is less than 1 mg/L in the simulated cobalt electrolyte after purification.